Drywall is used in the construction of buildings. It is plasterboard made of gypsum and other ingredients and is sold in sheets of, typically, 4 feet by 8 feet. It is used for covering wall studs and is then covered with, for example, paint or wallpaper. Drywall needs to be sized to be used for most applications. Although drywall is easy to cut by scoring the drywall and then “snapping” the drywall at the score mark, it is often cumbersome to make properly measured straight score marks and breaks. Furthermore, the tools often used to facilitate this work typically slide around when being used. This is because the tools used to permit the scoring and cutting of an eight-foot piece of drywall must be long and, as the user scores the dry wall, it can be difficult to also hold the alignment tool in place. Manual techniques are cumbersome and require stretching and reaching by the user. If the alignment tool moves at all, inaccurate score marks are made and this leads to mistakes and wastes time and materials.
Today, drywall is typically cut with a straight edge and a utility knife. Sometimes people use T-squares or other devices as an alignment tool to help ensure that the score marks and breaks are straight. Others have designed devices to aid users in the scoring and cutting of drywall but these prior art solutions to this problem are not without significant problems of their own.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,467,174 to Kotori (issued Oct. 22, 2002) discloses a drywall T-square with a slidable marker/cutter carrier that mounts on the long arm of the T-square. To use the device the T-square must me moved along the top of the drywall sheet. The cuts made by this device are perpendicular to the axis of the long arm of the T-square. This device does not disclose any means to ensure that the T-square does to move when being used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,629,370 to Sposato, (issued Oct. 7, 2003) also discloses a drywall cutter T-square with a slidable marker/cutter carrier that mounts on the long arm of the T-square. To use the device the T-square must me moved along the top of the drywall sheet. The cuts made by this device are perpendicular to the axis of the long arm of the T-square. This device does not disclose any means to ensure that the T-square does to move when being used.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,331 to Dempsey (issued Jun. 6, 2000) discloses a T-square with tabs that work to keep the device from rocking as it is being used. Although this device may aid in preventing the T-square from rocking frontward and backward out of the plane of the drywall sheet, it does not prevent the long arm of the T-square from moving in an arc across the front of the drywall sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,596 to Meyers (issued May 19, 1992) describes a T-square device for use with a conventional tape measure. Other than an edge that folds over the end of the sheet material, this device does not disclose any suitable means to ensure that the T-square does to move when being used. In other words, it only ensures that the device does not move in one plane (i.e., our of the plane of the sheet material).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,481 to Parsons, et at, (issued Dec. 15, 1998) describes a T-square device for use with a conventional tape measure. This device allows for the tilting of the tape measure on the T-square accessory. Other than an edge that folds over the end of the sheet material, this device does not disclose any suitable means to ensure that the T-square does to move when being used. In other words, it only ensures that the device does not move in one plane (i.e., our of the plane of the sheet material).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,903,409 to Kaplan, et al., (issued Feb. 27, 1990) discloses a T-square device for scribing and scoring drywall. The device has a slidable knife and slidable pencil holders. To use the device the T-square must me moved along the top of the drywall sheet. The cuts made by this device are perpendicular to the axis of the long arm of the T-square. This device does not disclose any means to ensure that the T-square does to move when being used.
Therefore, what is needed is a drywall cutter that solves these prior art problems. Namely, what is needed is a drywall cutter that has a means for ensuring that the drywall cutter T-square device does not rock side-to-side in an arc across the face of the drywall material.